Debbie's new musuem is fastly becoming a reality. Here she is with Carrie
and Todd at a groundbreaking ceremony in June, 2001. Congratulations Debbie!

UPDATE: This page will be updated soon. The museum is now going
to be located in Belle Island Village, Tennessee.

Debbie Reynolds Movie Collection Finds New Home in L.A.

By Edmund Newton

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -- Actress
Debbie Reynolds' huge collection of movie memorabilia, which she has been amassing for 30 years, is on the verge of
finding a new home in Hollywood, associates said on Wednesday.

The collection, including Judy Garland's gingham
dress and a pair of her ruby slippers from ''The Wizard of Oz,'' and the billowing "subway-grate skirt'' which
Marilyn Monroe wrestled with in ''The Seven Year Itch,'' has been without a permanent museum space since Reynolds' hotel
and casino venture in Las Vegas went broke in 1997.

Reynolds' foundation is expected to complete a deal this
week with TrizecHahn Corp., giving Reynolds' collection the top floor of a $500-million entertainment, dining and
retail project now under construction on Hollywood Boulevard. The development near Mann's Chinese Theater also includes
the Kodak Theater, the future home of the Academy of Motion Pictures' annual Oscar Awards presentations.

Having a prime 20,000-square-foot Hollywood location for her collection is "a dream come true,'' said Reynolds,
69.

"This is Hollywood's history,'' she said. "It's the only work I've known since I was 16 years
old. It's my family.''

Reynolds' collection, including 3,000 costumes from films made from the Silent Era
to the 1970s, as well as thousands of sets and pieces from those movies, is worth millions of dollars, said Todd Fisher,
34, the general manager of the foundation administering the collection. Fisher is Reynolds' son from her marriage
to singer Eddie Fisher.

The collection includes entire sets and costumes from such movies as "Planet of the
Apes'' (1968), "Gigi'' (1954), "Hello Dolly'' (1969), as well as films that Reynolds herself starred in, including
1952's "Singin' in the Rain" and 1962's "The Unsinkable Molly Brown.''

Fisher, in an interview,
said his mother's collection should open at its new home in Nov. 8 and will be known as the Hollywood Motion Picture
Collection. He said that only some minor issues remain to be worked out before the deal is set. The TrizecHahn
development is at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Boulevard, in the heart of Hollywood's preservation
and redevopment region.

"Think about it," said Jack Illes, a spokesman for TrizecHahn. "We've
got three beautiful old theaters around us -- the Egyptian, the El Capitan and the Chinese Theater -- and we're
across the street from the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, where the very first Academy Awards were given out. This is really
the touchstone of the motion picture industry in America.''

When the collection is on view, Reynolds displays
it as segments of a movie, with the costumes shown on actual movie sets. "I didn't want to have just mannequins
standing there,'' Reynolds said. "That would be boring.'' The idea was to re-create actual scenes from movies,
complete with the original furniture and costumes. The displays are often accompanied by video clips from the original
movies, with Reynolds' own voice-overs describing the items.

Fisher said his mother can, like other hobbyists,
be obsessive about tracking down items to complete a tableau.

"She just got a piece from the 1954 movie
'Desiree,''' Fisher said. "She had some spectacular costumes that Marlon Brando wore, and also Jean Simmons and
Merle Oberon. But she always wanted the Michael Rennie costume.'' Rennie played Napoleon's rival, General Jean-Baptiste
Bernadotte. Reynolds tracked the costume down to a private collector, who finally sold it through an auction house
that specializes in historical artifacts, Fisher said.

"It's no different from a collector of glasswork pieces
or stamps,'' he said. "My mother can be just as obsessed about getting the full set.''

Reynolds' hobby
has added to her financial travails, though it's a burden she has gladly borne, Fisher said. "My mother goes in
and out of being flush, depending on whether she's married or not,'' Fisher said. "If she hasn't been married
for a while, she's pretty flush. But even if she's broke, she still has to ability to go out and earn $100,000 or $200,000
in a week.''

By now, the collection has gotten so large, Fisher said, that only a small portion of it can
be displayed at any given time. Even with the availability of 20,000 square feet in the new complex, only about 20 percent
of Reynolds' memorabilia will be shown, he said, while the rest will be kept in storage.

While Reynolds has,
until recently, gotten little support for her efforts from the Hollywood studios, she has received some assistance from
some unlikely sources. Elizabeth Taylor recently donated a suit of armor worn by her late ex-husband Richard Burton
in "Cleopatra'' (1963).

Taylor, who once had a notorious relationship with Eddie Fisher when he was married
to Reynolds, and was blamed by many for the Reynolds-Fisher breakup, has also agreed to make her participation on-going.
"Liz has agreed to join the board of the foundation,'' Todd Fisher said.

04-19-01 / Reuters

Contribute!

Debbie is planning to open a new Hollywood Museum next year! Finally, her dream is coming through again. Movies buffs will
be able to view what may be the largest collection of costumes, props and other movie artifacts. Things such as: Marilyn
Monroe's notorius "subway dress"; the red sequined slippers from The Wizard of Oz; Doris Day's mermaid costume from
The Glass Bottom Boat; Judy Garland's blue jumper from The Wizard of Oz; Elizabeth Taylor's headress from Cleopatra."
More than 3,000 costumes alone!

Would you like to make a contribution to this exciting new venture? If so, contributions may be made at the following address: